Posts Tagged ‘better than bouillon’

Yes, this is a vegetarian recipe. And yes, there should be no reason for your meat lover to turn up their nose at this. If they do, it’s only because this is more than they can handle. So maybe you need to trade in for a new one?

Notes

Chili at it’s best is a dump, heat and eat food. And basically, so is this recipe.

What’s missing for a meat eater from a typical vegetarian chili is the meat texture and grease. The Trader Joe’s Soy Chorizo (or similar product) adds the texture. Browning the Soy Chorizo in enough vegetable oil adds the “grease.” The textured soy protein used as a base for the Soy Chorizo is an oil sponge. The trick is to saturate the “sponge” with so much oil that it can’t absorb any more. So start to “brown” the soy chorizo in about a tablespoon of oil, and as the oil is absorbed keep adding oil until the soy chorizo can’t absorb any more. This will leave enough oil left over to help disperse the spices throughout the chili, leave a nice sheen over everything, and even create those small pools of oil that float to the top.

Between the spices in the soy chorizo and the chili beans, this recipe produces a pretty spicy chili even without adding additional spices. In fact, it may be too spicy for some. So be sure to taste before adding additional spices.

The easiest way to remove the plastic casing from the soy chorizo is, to cut the tube into about 3 pieces, then cut the plastic casing the long way to get to the soy chorizo. The plastic casing is not edible.